"So you have chosen to study Divination, the most difficult of all magical arts. I must warn you at the outset that if you do not have the Sight, there is very little I will be able to teach you. Books can take you only so far in this field..."

Divination is a subject taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It teaches methods of divining the future, or gathering insights into future events, through various rituals and tools. The magic taught in this class, as well as the ability to say prophetic things is a branch of magic referred to as "divination."

HeadmasterAlbus Dumbledore had originally decided that this course should no longer be taught at Hogwarts, it being considered obscure and inaccurate to most. However, seeing the applicant for the teaching post was the famous great-great-granddaughter of a celebrated seer, Dumbledore decided to give her a chance. When she made a Prophecy that impressed Dumbledore, she was granted the position (though the true reason was to protect her from Lord Voldemort, who wanted to hear the rest of the prophecy).

Contents

Class information

Divination is an elective subject available beginning in a student's third year. Students study a myriad of ways to scry information about the future, including tea dregs, crystal balls, visions, and Astrology and horoscope charts. Other methods of divining the future include smoke patterns, dreams, tarot cards, and the interpretation of prophecies, though the latter is quite rare. Guides and textbooks allow students of Divination to discern or translate what observed symbols intend to mean.

Students of this class convene in one of two places: Professor Sybill Trelawney's office in the North Tower, or the Divination Classroom which is on the ground floor of the castle.

Because the subtle science of Divination is not exact, and "woolly", Hermione Granger had great difficulty with, and disdain for, it. After consulting with Professor Minerva McGonagall, who shared Hermione's scepticism for Divination, and then being insulted by Professor Trelawney about how she lacked the requirements for Divination, Hermione dropped out of the class altogether with dramatic flair to concentrate on Ancient Runes and Arithmancy.

Some students, such as Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, also could not achieve any success in this course, and regretted ever taking it. In order to scrape a pass in the course, they merely made up plenty of things when it comes to predicting the future, not taking the work seriously. They usually added plenty of tragedies, so Professor Trelawney would be satisfied, despite the false predictions could be far-fetched. They would also make fun out of the class whenever possible, as when Ron saw nothing but thick white swirl in the crystal ball, he joked about foreseeing a very foggy night, to which his friends laughed.

Sybill Trelawney began teaching Divination circa 1979, and was still teaching until 1998. Her beginner's class relied heavily on the art of scrying; however, Trelawney's teaching style did not go over well with most students. Only students Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil seemed to really take to the subject. Others fell asleep in her heavily-incensed and stifling classroom or considered the class to be a joke. Hermione Granger decided to quit the class for good, as Sybill Trelawney told her that she had not the inner eye, and because she thought Sybill Trelawney's predictions were inaccurate, and the few accurate ones are due to mere chance. Not many students liked her because they thought she was mad.

While her lessons were relatively safe, Professor Trelawney was renowned for predicting the death of a student each year. These prophecies never came true, although Lavender Brown's did find out that her pet rabbit had died on the pre-determined date Professor Trelawney dictated on her first day of class. Also, she had predicted that Neville Longbottom would break a cup from her china tea set.

Known O.W.L.s

Behind the scenes

It is interesting to note that when Harry and Ron begin making up predictions in their Divination homework in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, they happen to predict, exactly, the dangers that await Harry in the Triwizard Tournament: first that he will be "in danger of burns" (the first trial of overcoming a dragon); next that he will "lose a treasured possession" (Ron, his best friend, whom he will have to recover from the Merpeople); then get "stabbed in the back by someone you thought was a friend" (his D.A.D.A. professor); and finally "come off worse in a fight" (clearly, his duel with Lord Voldemort in the Little Hangleton graveyard). Similarly, whilst they are making up predictions, Ron and Harry "foresee" that Harry will lose his bet that Ron will win his fight (which he supposedly came off worse in). This also comes true (more or less) again with respect to the Triwizard tournament as it is later revealed that Ludo Bagman lost his bet that Harry would win the Triwizard tournament outright (which culminated in Harry coming off worse). Furthermore, although we do not hear any more of their fabricated predictions after that it is noted that they grew "steadily more tragic" and even predicted their own horrific deaths - eerily enough, later events do steadily grow more tragic and many wizards and witches do die horrifically in the future (particularly in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows).

Given the above (as well as the nature of Sybill Trelawney's gift) it may be that - with respect to the art of Divination - true talent does not lie in making accurate predictions, it is in recognising that they have been made.